Movie Gift Ideas

The 10 Greatest Gifts For Movie Buffs

4. Tarantino XX

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been watching Tarantino’s brand of bloody, verbose, post-modernist mayhem for 20 years now. But that’s exactly what the new Tarantino XX Blu-ray box set is celebrating. There’s no better way for the movie buff to gear up for Django Unchained than by revisiting every Tarantino classic, from the Tony Scott-directed True Romance to the WWII-revision Inglourious Basterds. He’ll even have the chance to reconsider Jackie Brown, the Tarantino flick that never gets the props it deserves despite being right up there with Pulp Fiction among the director’s best. The movie buff may already have many of these titles in some format or other, but this relatively inexpensive set brings it all into one nifty Mondo-style package that includes two bonus discs with new featurettes and retrospectives. Besides, when it comes to Tarantino, the movie buff won’t mind a bit of repetition in his library. Buy it here.

3. Lawrence of Arabia 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

The Lawrence of Arabia 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition contains oodles of extras and a restored director’s cut of David Lean’s masterpiece, as well as a coffee-table book and an actual film frame. That’s a lot of material for your movie buff to pore over, all on top of the movie itself, which is already almost four hours long. But the real selling point of this package is the 4K restoration. Lawrence of Arabia was one of the last films to be shot on 70mm (the format resurrected for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master). Previous home-video formats just couldn’t do justice to this movie’s majestic scope. The epic, true story of author T.E. Lawrence and his role in the Arab revolt deserves to be seen on the big screen, if only for Lean’s breathtaking vistas. However, that option is a rare and fleeting one, so the next best thing is this Blu-ray and the biggest television you can find. Buy it here.

2. Bond 50

If you present the movie buff in your life with this, he may have to give you some Bond-girl-style loving. Celebrating 50 years of 007, the Bond 50 collection brings you every single James Bond title, from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace, together for the first time ever on Blu-ray. There’s even a thoughtful placeholder included so you can fit Skyfall into the collection once it arrives. Enjoy the exotic locales, the explosive action and the shimmying femme fatales, all in high def. This luxurious box set, with its sleek and sexy design, would satisfy Mr. Bond himself. Buy it here.

1. Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection

There’s a new movie in theaters that calls itself Hitchcock, and it’s a far cry from a real Hitchcock movie. It is, in fact, an insult to any Hitchcock fan, depicting the most revered auteur and the making of his most successful film, Psycho, as fodder for a soap opera. The movie buff will be better off revisiting some old Hitch with The Masterpiece Collection, which assembles 15 titles together on Blu-ray for the first time, including such classics as Rear Window, Psycho and Vertigo — the latter of which topped Citizen Kane as the best film of all time according to an infamous Sight and Sound poll. Frequently dubbed the “Master of Suspense,” Hitchcock was actually a master of cinema whose films on voyeurism frequently turned the lens on the audience and their insatiable impulses. No movie buff’s life is complete without a Hitchcock collection or two, so indulge him. He’ll be so grateful you might even be able to get him to dress up in his mommy’s clothes in return. That would make for a very jolly Christmas. Buy it here.